Leptin May
Help Quiet Dieters' Hunger

Dieters who have more leptin in their
bodies may feel less hunger than dieters whose leptin levels drop while on a
weight-loss regimen. That's according to results of an investigation conducted
by Agricultural Research Service
scientists in California.

Research chemist Nancy L. Keim of the ARS
Western Human Nutrition Research Center
in Davis, Calif., led the 15-week study of 12 overweight but otherwise healthy
female volunteers age 20 to 40. ARS is
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief
research agency. Keim says the study is among the first long-term analyses of
blood (plasma) leptin in women who are on a reducing diet.

Keim found that during the first week of the weight-loss stint, volunteers'
plasma leptin levels dropped by an average of 54 percent. Then, levels remained
low throughout the rest of the study. The incidence of hunger and the desire to
eat doubled in response to the reducing diet. But the volunteers who reported
the greatest increase in hunger and the greatest desire to eat were those with
the largest drop in leptin, according to Keim.

Volunteers with higher leptin concentrations and smaller decreases in leptin
as the study progressed were less hungry while dieting.

Before the reducing-diet portion of the study began, Keim helped volunteers
become accustomed to the questionnaire that they would fill out to describe the
intensity of their hunger. They responded to the questionnaire once every two
weeks throughout the study, ranking their hunger throughout the day.